Poker, as in any other game of chance, there is no clear optimal strategy game. This is due to a large degree of uncertainty - the players do not know each other's cards. They are available only limited information - their own cards, community cards, as well as the course of trade. To confuse opponents and gain an advantage, players use a variety of strategic techniques, such as a bluff (semi-bluff), a free card, a check-raise steal (steal blinds). In conditions of uncertainty for optimal decision making in poker is widely used probabilistic approach to the definition of the expectation of possible actions. During the game, is commonly used counting odds and compare it with the chance of improvement for the decision to continue the game.

There are so-called "Fundamental Theorem of Poker", sponsored by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth: «Whenever you play a perfect combination of how you would play if you had seen all of your opponents cards, they win, and every time when you play a combination of both, as would have done, seeing all their cards, they lose". Conversely, whenever an opponent plays their hands differently from the way they would have done, seeing all your cards, you win, and every time they play hands the same way as if you had seen all of your cards, you you lose. " This theorem directly is hardly applicable during the game, but it emphasizes the importance of two things: a qualitative assessment of maps of the enemy, the optimal decision in the light of this assessment.